Intel introduces mSATA SSD 525 Series for Ultrabooks

Intel has announced a new mSATA solid-state drive designed for Ultrabooks and low-power embedded applications. The SSD 525 Series is essentially an mSATA version of the 2.5-inch 520 SSD Series, and as such it’s also the company’s first drive in this form factor to support the 6Gb/s SATA interface.

It uses the same 25nm 2-bit MLC IMFT NAND as its 2.5-inch sibling as well as the same SandForce SF-2281 controller and “Intel-validated” firmware. In terms of performance that means you can expect the same sequential read and write speeds of 550 and 520 MB/s, respectively, with random read and write performance of up to 50,000 and 80,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS).

The new Intel SSD 525 Series will be available in 30GB ($54), 60GB ($104), 90GB ($129), 120GB ($149), 180GB ($214) and 240GB ($279) capacities -- the 120GB and 180GB options are already shipping, according to Intel. Intel's suggested pricing is a bit higher than Crucial’s mSATA m4 drives and also about $10-20 more than what you'll pay for equivalent 520 Series drives right now, but that’s to be expected.

As it’s usually the case performance will vary depending on capacity, but they all feature Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128-bit encryption and are backed up by Intel’s 5-year limited warranty.